Eye applicator



Aug. 1950 J. R. HISSONG ,553

EYE APPLICATOR Filed Sept. 4, 1948 Patented Aug. 8, 1950 EYE APPLICATOR John R. Hissong, Chicago, 111., assignor to Radium Chemical Company, Inc., New York, N. Y a

corporation of New York Application September 4, 1948, Serial No. 47,896

6 Claims- 1 The present invention relates to therapeutic applicators and more particularly to an improved applicator capable of being used uniformly to expose a Surface of thehuman body such asthe eyeball to radiations from radioactive substances.

It has been found that certain afflictions of the eye, for example, conjunctivitis and :papillomas may beefiectively treated by subjecting the-eyeball to radiations from radioactive materials. Heretofore instruments known asappli- .cators have been:-.devised for applying radiations tohuman tissue. .In so far as I amaware, these applicators. are soconstructed that they present aflatwsurface from which the radiations emanate which surface is of rectangular or circular outlinein cross-section Since the outer surface of the eyeball is spherical, it is impossible with applicatorsof the type heretofore devised to effect uniform exposure of the eyeball to radiations. Overlapping along certain areas is bound to occur if known applicators are used for this purpose withrthe consequent danger that portionsof tion of the surface to be treated so that direct contact between this emanating surface andthe surface being treated may be had.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a newand improved shell .or housing for holding radioactive materials in a form for utilization in exposing portions of the human. body to radiations from the material. This housing is designed to. protect the material from loss or injury and the person handling the same from harmful exposure, and it is capable of being so 1 applied to the surface to be treated that uniform exposure of the surface to radiations is .assured without any-overlapping of the areas of exposure.

A still further object. of the invention is to provide an applicator of the foregoinggtype having interchangeably usable handles to facilitate .manipulation of the applicator so that it may be applied to arcuate or other curved surfaces A without overlapping the areas of exposure and ill without: subjecting the operator to harmful exposure to theradiations.

A general object of the invention is the. provision of a :relativelywsimple and practical applicator that is durable in construction and inexpensive'to. manufacture and which makes use of a common and easily handled material as an imibedding agent for securing the radioactive substance in position sothat it can readily be removed and replaced.

These and other objects, advantages andcapabilities of the invention will become apparent from the following descriptions/herein reference is bad to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of the improved applicator; of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the applicator housing on an enlarged scale taken in the direction of the arrows ontheline 27-4 of Fig.1;

Fig. 3 is. a sectional view of the applicator housing on an enlarged scale taken on the line 3-.-3,of Fig. 2; r

Fig. 4 isa perspective view of the applicator;

Fig. .515 a side elevational view of the applicator witha curued extension handle secured thereto; and

Fig. 6 is v a moreor less diagrammatic plan view ,of an eyeball illustnating the positions at which the applicator may be applied in .eiiectin a treatwall .20 which may be integral with the rear wall. All portionsofthe side wallare of arcuate shape in a plane (normal to these walls, including an inner wall portion 2.21 and outer 1wallportions 24 The inner portionxZZ of the side wall may be formed on a radius approximating that of the iris of a normal humanzeye which is in,the neighborhood of 12 millimeteraand the outer portions .34 of ,the wall 20 arefor-med on a ,curve complementa ty to the curve .of the inner portion of the .wall-for a purpose which will appear subsequently. In addition to its curvature abov mentioned, the "outer ed e o the Side. wa zotclefirli s th housing imbedding the same in a mass of material indicated at M with which the housing is filled. Any

open front end of the housing is dished or curved in a plane normal to the plane of the side wall 20 along the inner portion 22 of this wall, as indicated at 26 in Figs. 1 and 3. This curvature preferably corresponds approximately in radius to the curvature of the outer surface of the eyeball along the rim of the iris. As a result of these two curvatures in the side wall of the housing, the housing may be applied to the eyeball with the inner portion 22 of the side wall lying along the periphery of the iris and the front edges of the side wall including the dished or curved portion 26 in close contacting engagement with the eyeball. The advantages of this construction will be described later.

In order to protect the user or the person handling an applicator from harmful exposure to radiations from the radioactive substances contained in the housing, it is preferably formed from a protective material capable of screening out or stopping most, if not all, of the radiations so that such radiations emanate only from the open front end of the housing. I have found that silver is an inexpensive but satisfactory material from which the housing ma be made, and when this metal is used, the walls should be at least .75 millimeter thick. Other metals such as activity, such as radon gas, preferably is used as the source of radiations. This gas is sealed in the relatively small glass tubes l6 which are approximately .50 millimeter in diameter. These tubes may vary in length from 7 to 9 millimeters depending on the position they are to occupy in the applicator and are tightly sealed at opposite" ends'to prevent escape of the gas.

The tubes l6 are secured in position in the [0 adjacent its open front end by suitable material may be used for this purpose which is plastic and moldable at a relatvely lowtemperature so that the tubes may be removed and replaced without too much difiiculty. I

have found that beeswax is a particularly suitable imbedding material because it is rigid at normal body temperatures and therefore does 'not soften when the applicator is applied to human tissue but it may be softened by heating the same somewhat above body temperature, thus making the material easy to mold.

In order to secure close contact between the applicator and the eyeball the outer surface of the wax is made flush at its edges with the front edges of the housing. It is molded between these front edges to a contour complementary to the contour of the portion of the eyeball which the applicator is capable of covering in one application. A contact surface 28 is thus formed for presentation to and contacting engagement with the outer surface of the eyeball. The tubes 16 are positioned immediately below this contact surface so that direct and intimate contact between the surface of the eyeball and the contact surface 28 is possible.

To facilitate manipulation of the applicator and further protect the person handling the same from exposure, the housing is provided with an anchor pin or stud 30 to which the extension handle 12 may be detachably and rigidly secured. This anchor pin 30 is provided with a reduced portion 32 which extends through an aperture in the rear wall l8 of the housing It) and the pin is rigidly secured with respect to the housing by peening the end of the reduced portion against the inner side of the back wall l8 of the housing and additionally by soldering these parts together. The outerendof the pin 30 is also of reduced diameter and is threaded, as indicated at 33 in Fig. 1.

The handle l2 may be made in one or more sections and ma be curved as indicated in Fig. 5 to facilitate manipulation of the applicator. As indicated in Fig. 1 these extensions are of tubular construction and are threaded internally at one end for detachably but rigidly connecting the same to the threaded end 33 on the anchor pin 30. At their opposite end the handle sections may be provided with a projecting stud or pin 36 which is threaded to receive the internally threaded end of another section of the extension handle. As many sections of handle as desired may be used but normally the handle need be only long enough so that the operators hand is at least 6" from the housing I0.

In order more clearly to illustrate the use of my applicator and its advantages over applicators of conventional construction, reference is made to Fig. 6 which shows in plan and more or less diagrammatically a human eye with the lids drawn partly back and the eyeball turned inwardly so that the iris indicated at 36 is to one side of center. Treatment of the eye may start at any place but it is preferable to start at the periphery of the iris andwork away from this area. The contact surface 28 can be brought into intimate contact with the surface of the eyeball due to the fact that the inner portion 22 of the side wall of the housing is formed on a radius approximating that of the periphery of the iris and the edges of the side walls defining the open front end of the housing and the outer surface 28 of the wax bed I4 are contoured complementary to the portion of an eyeball which they cover when engaged therewith.

Furthermore, due to the fact that the inner portion 22 and outer portions 24 of the side wall are complementary, it is possible to treat the eye without overlapping any of the areas which have previously been exposed. For example, after treatment of the areas marked l and 2 in Fig. 6, theapplicator may next be moved to the position marked 3 with the inner portion 22 of the side wall 261 lying along the boundary of the area enclosed by the outer wall portion 24 during the time the applicator was in No. 2 position. Since the curves of these inner and outer wall portions are complementary, the applicator may be so positioned that substantially the entire eyeball is treated without any overlapping of the areas to which the applicator is applied. This is further illustrated by subsequent location of the applicator at the positions marked 4, 5 and 6 in Fig. 6.

While I have illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of my invention, many modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and I do not wish to be limited to the precise details set forth but desire to avail myself of all changes within'the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. An applicator for applying radiations from radioactive substances to an eyeball, comprising a hollow casing having an open front side bounded by an eye-contacting edge, said edge in the general plane thereof being concave in one portion and convex in the remainder, said concave portion having a curvature in said general plane substantially the same as that of the corneal margin, said concave portion also being dished below said general plane so as to possess a curvature substantially complementary to the sphericity of an eyeball at the corneal margin, said casing forming a housing for radioactive material.

2. An applicator for applying radiations from radioactive substances to an eyeball, comprising a hollow casing having an open front side bounded by an eye-contacting edge, said edge in the general plane thereof being concave in one portion and convex in the remainder, said concave portion having a curvature in said general plane substantially the same as that of the corneal margin, said concave portion also being dished below said general plane so as to possess a curva ture substantially complementary to the sphed ricity of an eyeball at the corneal margin, said convex portion having a part thereof formed with the same curvature as the curvature of said concave portion, said casing forming a housing for radioactive material.

3. An applicator for applying radiations from radioactive substances to an eyeball, comprising a hollow casing having an open front side bounded by an eye-contacting edge, said edge in the general plane thereof being concave in one portion and convex in the remainder, said con cave portion having a curvature in said general plane substantially the same as that of the corneal margin, said concave portion also being dished below said general plane so as to possess a curvature substantially complementary to the sphericity of an eyeball at the corneal margin, said casing being elongated and having a convex front and convex ends of the same curvature as said concave front, said casing forming a housing for radioactive material.

4. An applicator for applying radiations from radioactive substances to an eyeball, comprising a hollow casing having an open front side bounded by an eye-contacting edge, said edge in the general plane thereof being concave in one portion and convex in the remainder, said concave portion having a curvature in said general plane substantially the same as that of the corneal margin, said concave portion also being dished below said general plane so as to possess a curvature substantially complementary to the sphericity of an eyeball at the corneal margin, said casing forming a housing for radioactive material, and a radioactive substance located in said casing.

5. An applicator for applying radiations from radioactive substances to an eyeball, comprising a hollow casing having an open front side bounded by an eye-contacting edge, said edge in the general plane thereof being concave in one portion and convex in the remainder, said concave portion having a curvature in said general plane substantially the same as that of the corneal margin, said concave portion also being dished below said general plane so as to possess a curvature substantially complementary to the sphericity of an eyeball at the corneal margin, said casing forming a housing for radioactive material, means for securing a radioactive material in said casing to effect maximum radiation therefrom, including a readily moldable material filling said casing to the edges of said open front side, said material being adapted to be formed between said edges to present an exposed contact surface complementary to at least a portion of the surface to be treated, and radioactive material imbedded below said surface.

6. An applicator for applying radiations from radioactive substances to an eyeball, comprising a hollow casing having an open front side bounded by an eye-contacting edge, said edge in the general plane thereof being concave in one portion and convex in the remainder, said concave portion having a curvature in said general plane substantially the same as that of the corneal margin, said concave portion also being dished below said general plane so as to possess a curvature substantially complementary to the sphericity of an eyeball at the corneal margin, said casing forming a housing for radioactive material, and a handle on said casing for manipulating said applicator.

JOHN R. HISSONG.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,406,488 Pugh Feb. 14, 1922 1,525,158 Viol Feb. 3, 1925 1,543,859 Leman June 30, 1925 

